The use of electronic health records (EHR) should be guided by ethical principles that put patient care at the forefront, according to a position paper published by the American College of Physicians (ACP). EHRs can be an asset in delivery quality care, but may have unintended ethical consequences, the ACP said in a March 21 statement.
Q: Can we ask patients to submit a signed document stating who their personal representative(s) is/are? Can a patient have more than one personal representative?
Q: Our laboratory has been running some testing for “proprietary laboratory analyses” for colorectal and ovarian cancer. The codes they gave me are not active, but they said they are the testing codes provided by the manufacturer. The codes are 0002U and 0003U. Are these valid codes to report on a claim?
Hackers are targeting poorly secured file transfer protocol (FTP) servers to access protected health information (PHI), store malicious tools, or launch cyberattacks, according to an alert released by the FBI March 22.
Q. We’re a small clinic and were just hit with ransomware. We do have a plan to recover and have clean backup data to restore from. Is there anything we’re missing?
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration released a final rule updating privacy regulations for alcohol and substance abuse patient records. The changes are intended to reflect the way information is shared in new healthcare models while still protecting the privacy of individuals seeking treatment.
How many of us have a successful mentoring program established in our organization and department? For most organizations, I would venture to say mentoring is performed on a piecemeal basis and is likely not as effective as it could be. Far too often, mentoring efforts are disorganized and lack a dedicated trainer. If any training is given, it often consists of the same general orientation afforded to all new employees, regardless of the job they will be doing.
HIM and other healthcare professionals looking for best practice tips to improve care for LGTBT individuals can look to AHIMA’s new practice brief, Enhancing Patient Engagement for LGBT Populations, released March 14.
The following is a question and answer form created by Ronald Hirsch, MD, FACP, CHCQM, vice president of the Regulations and Education Group at R1 Physician Advisory Services in Chicago, to help outline some basics regarding the complex rules surrounding the three-day qualifying stay required, which Medicare requires in order for patients to qualify for the skilled nursing facility (SNF) benefit.You can use this as a starting point to create your own physician and provider training materials on this topic. Ensuring that providers are well-trained on this topic can help ensure patients get accurate information, which can make these discussions less difficult.
